CONNECT. ISSUE 6
News and updates from AV Dawson Limited
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Reborn The Port of Middlesbrough
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Record Breaker Offshore wind ship
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Industry Insight Our responsibility
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A Legacy The Maurice Dawson Fund
MORE THAN JUST A PORT www.portofmiddlesbrough.com
CONNECT. ISSUE 6
WELCOME TO CONNECT.
03 PORT OF MIDDLESBROUGH IS REBORN
04 LANDMARK HEAD OFFICE MARKS NEW CHAPTER OF EXPANSION
05 OFFSHORE WIND SHIP BREAKS RECORDS FOR MIDDLESBROUGH AFTER A BRIEF HIATUS OF CONNECT MAGAZINE WE’RE BACK! So much has happened since the last edition I’m not entirely sure where to start. It is however difficult to overlook the past couple of years and the devastating effect that the Coronavirus pandemic has had on our lives. Like many businesses a proportion of our colleagues had to make the immediate transition to work from home but as an essential business our operations continued. This initially presented us with a number of challenges to overcome, especially around keeping our colleagues and their families safe but also keeping our operations moving. However, our team has worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to support our customers and supply chains and I am immensely proud of what we have achieved. As if one once in a lifetime event wasn’t difficult enough to navigate, we have had to deal with the double whammy of Coronavirus and Brexit. On 1 January 2021 the UK left the European Union and in addition to our customers starting a rotation of shutdowns due to supply chain shortages, we were also left with several challenges particularly around customs declarations and business processes. Frustratingly even though we had been preparing for Brexit for over 18 months we had found that much of the information and advice around
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Brexit was inconsistent and lacking, geared up for the owners of goods rather than for a port and logistics business like ours. However as always, we have had our customers’ best interests at heart and we moved quickly to adapt our business processes to lessen the potential impact for both our business and theirs. Another outcome of Brexit was the announcement of a number of Freeports across the country, with the Teesside bid successfully securing Freeport status. We were delighted that our Port of Middlesbrough site was included as a secondary customs zone within the Teesside Freeport. In other news I am so pleased that we have been able to continue to support local charities and good causes and in addition to the work we carry out with The Teesside Charity, High Tide Foundation and supporting local educational centres, we recently launched our very own colleague community fund – ‘The Maurice Dawson Fund’. Named after my late father, this is designed to support charities and worthy causes close to our colleagues’ hearts.
Gary Dawson, Managing Director
6-7 OUR ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
08 NEW MOBILE HARBOUR CRANE COMMISSIONED FOR PORT OF MIDDLESBROUGH
09 A LEGACY WITH FAMILY AT ITS HEART – THE MAURICE DAWSON FUND
10 POSTER BOYS FOR MIDDLESBROUGH
IN THIS ISSUE
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PORT OF MIDDLESBROUGH IS REBORN
The business has called this new facility Port of Middlesbrough in honour of the town’s first port which was on the same stretch of the River Tees back in the 1830s, prior to the construction of Middlesbrough Dock. Gary Dawson, AV Dawson’s managing director said: “Over the years, we’ve acquired various sites as we’ve expanded our operations and it’s become a challenge to describe succinctly what AV Dawson Limited is. “We have thought long and hard about what drives the business forward and what defines us – we’ve concluded that our location and the River Tees are key to this, neither of which feature in the company name. So given the nature of all of
the multimodal assets and activities that we own and operate, we are best positioned from a marketing perspective describing ourselves as a port.” “We wanted to consolidate under one new encompassing brand and image, but with a continuation of the AV Dawson name and legacy. ‘Port of Middlesbrough – an AV Dawson facility’ fits with our history and reflects the growth of our business and the town.” “Being a Teesside family business, founded over 80 years ago, the history of the area is really important to us, so it seemed logical to reignite the Port of Middlesbrough name. The new port marks the start of a three-year port masterplan to further develop the site, which will go on to create further jobs and investment in the local area. This plan, an investment of over £10m includes the construction of a plastic waste recycling plant, a new head office and the enhancement of AV Dawson’s existing quayside to
accommodate larger vessels. It’s anticipated that these developments will create over a hundred new jobs on the site. Andy Preston, Mayor of Middlesbrough said:
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This development is a perfect fit for my wider ambitions for Middlesbrough, focusing on attracting new investment and jobs to boost the town’s economy.
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At the end of 2020 AV Dawson amalgamated several parts of its Middlesbrough-based port and logistics operations to form one, integrated port facility as it drives forward with further growth and expansion.
As an iconic local firm, AV Dawson is a great asset to our town – it is fantastic that it has brought back the Port of Middlesbrough and continues to invest for the future. This is hugely positive news for Middlesbrough.
Mr Dawson concluded: “The launch of Port of Middlesbrough adds further strength to the River Tees and its offer to importing and exporting businesses. We plan to work closely with the statutory harbour authority, PD Ports, to ensure the Tees attracts more ships, as ultimately this will help drive jobs and the local economy.”
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CONNECT. ISSUE 6
LANDMARK HEAD OFFICE MARKS NEW CHAPTER OF MIDDLESBROUGH PORT’S EXPANSION Despite the challenges of Brexit and a global pandemic, AV Dawson is opening its new head office at Port of Middlesbrough, marking the next chapter of the firm’s expansion. While Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic caused major supply chain challenges, the building is due to be finished in early 2022, just a few months after it was originally scheduled to be finished. The £3m, 24,000 sq ft office development forms part of the £10 million, 3-year masterplan announced after the site was rebranded as Port of Middlesbrough in September 2020. AV Dawson managing director Gary Dawson said: “The new office has been built in the exact location of the original Port of
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Middlesbrough, its modern design reflects the future of the area while also giving a nod to the past. “Being an 80-year-old Teesside business, the heritage of the company and of Teesside is really important to us. The building has been designed to look very modern while also reflecting the 190-year heritage of the site, for example the landscaping includes recycled railway sleepers and some of the sandstone foundations from the original 1830 quays, which were discovered during the excavation.” Mr Dawson continued: “After announcing the launch of Port of Middlesbrough, our new head office development marks an exciting new chapter for the business. We wanted to build an office that not only looked modern and striking but also
helped us deliver our long-term growth and expansion plans. “This is as much about looking after our staff as it is about our customers. The design features open plan office spaces with colleague break out areas, private meeting spaces, co-working areas and training rooms as well as a gym, relaxation spaces, music room, games area and roof terraces. The business is also encouraging local education and charities to utilise its facilities. Mr Dawson explained: “The top floor incorporates state-of-theart conferencing facilities and meeting areas, with capacity to seat up to 120 guests. We want to open the door to our industry, enabling our community to get closer to the shipping industry and hopefully help inspire new
blood to come into the sector.” Undertaking the project during Brexit and Covid has presented some significant challenges for the business. Mr Dawson said: “These world events have made a challenging project even more difficult. We have experienced supply chain issues and periods were Covid outbreaks have shut down the whole construction project. Managing this on top of a very busy period for the port and logistics sector has been tough. On reflection, it’s a massive achievement that the project has been completed during this time. We are planning to have a formal opening event in the coming months when we will also be revealing a very special piece of local art.”
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Prysmian Group’s 171-metre vessel ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ makes record breaking visit to AV Dawson’s Port of Middlesbrough
OFFSHORE WIND SHIP BREAKS RECORDS FOR MIDDLESBROUGH A new offshore wind vessel broke records for the region’s offshore wind industry when it sailed into Middlesbrough. The 171-metre ship, named ‘Leonardo da Vinci’, set a new record as the largest offshore wind vessel ever to pass under Middlesbrough’s famous Transporter Bridge when it completed its recent voyage to AV Dawson’s Port of Middlesbrough. Built this year, by Prysmian Group, world leaders in the manufacturer and installation of subsea cable, the Leonardo da Vinci is actually a record breaker herself. The ship is the most advanced cable-laying vessel in the world. It has the highest cable carrying capacity in the market and a very large bollard pull to allow for ploughing in very challenging seabed conditions. It can also operate for extended periods in challenging
weather and work to the deepest depths. Peter Watson, Prysmian’s installation manager said: “The vessel allows us to offer an ever wider and more versatile range of installation services and strengthen our leadership position in this highly competitive sector.” The state-of-the-art vessel’s first project was on the Viking Link project where she mobilised here at Port of Middlesbrough. The ship will be making regular visits to North East England as Prysmian operates its Northern European marine base from Port of Middlesbrough. Mr Watson said: “The Leonardo da Vinci will be a key enabler of a carbon-neutral world by 2050. We are delivering most of the biggest projects in the world
and the Leonardo da Vinci has a critical role to play in ensuring that our market share grows in the future.” Gary Dawson, AV Dawson’s managing director said: “It was an amazing sight to watch the Leonardo da Vinci coming into berth at Port of Middlesbrough. It’s all been very top secret so we’ve not been allowed to talk about it until today, but now we really do want to tell the world as it just illustrates how Teesside and the River Tees is evolving to embrace and lead the way in exciting new industries such as offshore wind.” “Our relationship with Prysmian began with them having just a container of equipment on our site. In the last ten years their Teesside based operation has grown at an incredible rate and they now rent a number of large
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warehouses on site and use our port to manage all their Northern European marine operations. “It’s very much a partnership and we’ve made significant investment to support Prysmian’s expansion, from building bespoke warehouses with roof access for cable spooling operations to investing in the quayside. We’ve been planning for the Leonardo da Vinci’s arrival for the last two years. This has involved investing millions in dredging a deeper berth and dredging the channel to enable the Leonardo da Vinci to reach the berth. This investment gives us deep-water berths with a licensed depth of up to 9.5 metres plus the tides, which enables us to not only support Prysmian with their largest vessels but also to support other new customers too, in offshore wind and other sectors.”
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CONNECT. ISSUE 6
INDUSTRY INSIGHT
OUR ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
THE IMPENDING CLIMATE DISASTER Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last couple of years you can’t escape the subject of the environment. In fact, the alarm bells of our impending climate disaster have been ringing for many years and thanks to the pioneering efforts of Sir David Attenborough and climate activists such as Greta Thunberg we are finally waking up to the realisation that the world in which we live is in danger. The conclusion of the recent COP26 UN Climate Change Conference has now brought into sharp focus the reality that we have to act before we irreparably destroy our planet. Climate change isn’t a new phenomenon, in fact the rise
in greenhouse gases, most significantly carbon dioxide, resulting in heat being trapped in our atmosphere has been happening for over 150 years since the birth of the industrial revolution. However this has sped up in recent years as we become overly reliant on the burning of fossil fuels to create energy to power our new technological era. Although the subject has been discussed for many years and world leaders have made and broken promises, it is now that they are waking up to the pending climate catastrophe and the potential devastating effects if nothing is done.
WHAT HAS CLIMATE GOT TO DO WITH LOGISTICS? It’s a double-edged sword when it comes to the logistics sector and climate change, ‘logistics are being impacted by the effects of climate change but at the same time logistics are a major contributor to the causes of climate change.’ In one respect, logistics relies on stability and climate change is the nemesis of stability. The deterioration of the climate is causing the polar ice caps to melt, causing a rise in sea levels and extreme weather events are becoming a more frequent occurrence. Freak storms and changes in weather systems can ultimately affect maritime traffic and the shipping routes that are crucial to supply chains. The impact can also be felt on dry land, the increase in adverse weather, flooding, high winds and storms can all have
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a significant impact on logistics operations. The logistics and the transport industries aren’t just potential casualties of climate change, they are also one of the biggest contributors. Statistics from the 2021 Transport and Environmental Annual Report produced by the Department for Transport shows that in 2019 UK domestic transport (road) was responsible for emitting 122 MtCO2e (million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent). This means that road transport is the largest emitting sector of greenhouse gas emissions, producing 27% of the UK’s total emissions, of this, 18% and 17% of this comes from heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and vans respectively.
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KEY FACTS (SOURCE LOGISTICS UK) •
Transport is now the UK’s largest GHG (Green House Gases) emitting sector, following a decrease in energy emissions since 2016, and is responsible for 27% of GHG emissions.
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Road vehicles produce the most GHG emissions across the transport sector (91%), with cars and taxis emitting 61% of road transport emissions in 2019, compared with 18% from HGVs and 17% from vans.
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A medium sized HGV can carry the same amount as 10 vans, larger HGVs can carry the same as 25 vans.
THE STRIVE TO BECOME NET ZERO With the government’s ambitious target to become NET Zero by 2050 the focus is now on for businesses to make fundamental changes to offset their carbon emissions, but what hope do smaller logistics companies have when the largest logistics companies in the world, and household names within the sector, have not set out to be more ambitious than the government’s 2050 target. When it comes to climate change AV Dawson has the environment at the forefront of its strategic plan. In fact the environment is such a pertinent issue that the business has assigned a dedicated environmental role, sitting within the Health, Safety and Environmental department. The role is also being supported by an external consultant to help analyse current working practices and observe where improvements can be made. The business is already accredited with the ISO 14001 Environmental Standard which helps businesses set out a framework to manage their environmental responsibilities, this is expected to help as the business sets out goals to become Net Zero.
AV Dawson has also been recognised for its dedication to the environment and has won multiple awards for the innovative solutions it has produced to offset the business’ carbon emissions. One example is its 102,000sq ft Automotive Metals Store which has a negative carbon footprint achieved using ground-sourced heat pumps and 1000 solar panels which produce twice as much energy than the store uses. It also has a rainwater lagoon that collects rainwater from the building and acts as a natural soak away. The business faces significant challenges when it comes to reducing its carbon footprint and the slow advancement of technology is just one example. AV Dawson’s commercial and marketing director, Charlie Nettle said: “As a business, we’ve always taken a long term view, so we’re not afraid to invest in some of these energy efficient solutions, but the challenge is often that the technology and wider infrastructure have not quite caught up yet. For example, our cranes could be run on electricity, but the local electrical infrastructure coming into our site is insufficient to power them. We’re told that our giant reach-
stackers would somehow need to incorporate around 100 tonnes of batteries, which would make the machine so slow and so heavy it would need humongous tyres.” AV Dawson is always looking for solutions to reduce its carbon emissions and one of the ways it’s doing this is to utilise efficient transport methods. With one of the largest independent rail terminals in the North of England, the business receives regular trains directly into the port and with a 74% reduction in relative carbon emissions when using a train rather than a truck to transport goods, the company always looks to champion rail wherever possible. The current volume of rail traffic coming into Port of Middlesbrough is taking over 13,500 vehicles off UK roads each year, equating to roughly 1,654,000 road miles. There is also a growing interest in hydrogen as a clean, renewable and readily available alternative that could help power HGV’s, heavy plant equipment and ships too. Hydrogen is highly efficient, produces almost zero emissions and can significantly reduce carbon footprints however, investment is still required to develop fuel cells so they can become a viable energy source
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and when looking at the overall cost it is still greater when compared to solar and traditional fuels. Mr Nettle continued: “It is challenging for businesses like ours that rely on heavy machinery, cranes and trucks as there is a huge pressure to turn to greener solutions, not only to meet government targets but to also respond to our customers’ demands and to protect our company reputation. As part of its green ambitions, the government will be abolishing its red diesel tax relief in April. This will mean that fuel costs for our plant equipment will double overnight, adding further cost pressures for our business and other companies in the sector. “While the technology gradually catches up, we feel as a team that we have made a step change in recent years with regard to our own green ambitions. If we’re honest, there was probably a lot of green washing in our sector before now, but the new, environmentally-conscious younger generations coming through are certainly making us all think harder about protecting our environment and our future and that can only be a good thing.”
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NEW MOBILE HARBOUR CRANE COMMISSIONED FOR PORT OF MIDDLESBROUGH AV Dawson has recently taken delivery of a new mobile harbour crane to help increase operational efficiencies at Port of Middlesbrough. The new Gottwald mobile harbour crane has a working radius of 51 metres and a lifting capacity of 125 tonnes and will be used to lift a variety of cargo including containers, bulk products, breakbulk and project cargo for a number of sectors including offshore wind and renewables. The crane is equipped with an
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external power supply and once an upgrade to the power supply to the port has been completed it will allow the business to power the crane using electricity, offsetting carbon emissions and reducing operational noise levels. AV Dawson managing director, Gary Dawson said “We had an unexpected and urgent need for a new mobile harbour crane for our port operations. We have partnered with Konecranes team for over a decade now and have three existing Gottwald mobile
harbour cranes, the Model 5 will be the biggest in our fleet and will allow us to significantly increase our available lifting power. In line with our drive to reduce our emissions to meet our environmental targets we have opted for a fully electric solution which will be powered by a new harbour mains system once the wider local electrical infrastructure becomes available”. Jon Haden, Business Development Manager for
Konecranes Port Solutions said “It’s always a pleasure to receive a new order from an established customer, as it demonstrates the strength of our partnership and it’s a testament to the service we have offered to support their growth over many years. We’re proud that we’ve been able to provide the crane in such an ambitious timetable. This delivery highlights the value of going the extra mile to help customers whenever it’s required,”
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A LEGACY WITH FAMILY AT ITS HEART THE MAURICE DAWSON FUND
With over 96 percent of its employees coming from the Teesside region, AV Dawson takes a huge interest in supporting local charities and community groups. The business is also heavily involved with local universities, schools and colleges to promote careers and opportunities in the logistics industry and firmly believes in giving back to the community in which it operates. As one of the largest family businesses in Teesside the company wanted to take this commitment to the next level and support charities and worthy
causes close to its employees’ hearts by launching its own internal colleague community fund – ‘The Maurice Dawson Fund’. The fund, named after the late Maurice Dawson, father of current managing director Gary Dawson, was established to reinforce the company’s family values and provide a fund that AV Dawson colleagues could access to support community and charitable initiatives that were important to them. Gary Dawson said: “Our values are the cornerstone of our business,
we are not just a family-owned business, I consider all of our colleagues to be part of the AV Dawson family. We have often been asked to support initiatives that our colleagues are involved with but it’s difficult to support everyone and so we needed a fair and balanced process to distribute the funds. “The fund is already making a difference. We have a panel made up of colleagues from across the business, who come together every quarter to discuss the applications and decide how to distribute the available funds.
“We have already supported two amazing local charities. Zoe’s Place, a facility in Teesside providing care and support to families with children aged up to 5-years-old living with a life-limiting or lifethreatening illness and The Unicorn Centre, a purpose-built riding facility for the disabled that offers riding therapy and learning and training opportunities for over 200 disabled adults and children from the Tees Valley each week.
WE RECENTLY DELIVERED OVER 50 CHRISTMAS PACKAGES TO THE HOMELESS CAFÉ IN MIDDLESBROUGH. THESE VITAL SUPPLIES WILL HELP PEOPLE IN NEED OVER THE CHRISTMAS PERIOD. Keep up to date with our latest news on our...
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BRAND NEW AV Dawson has successfully launched a new website and brand for one of its group companies, Cockfield Knight. The business has been working for many months to develop ideas to build a brand that represents the successful and ambitious company Cockfield Knight is today. The new brand has been developed to support the launch of Cockfield Knight & Co Limited as the second subsidiary business in AV Dawson’s new group structure (following the launch of AVD Industrial & Port Services last year). Cockfield Knight has been part of the AV Dawson family since 2010, providing shipping and logistics services. The business continues to play a key role in the success
of the AV Dawson group and is experiencing a period of strong growth currently. The new logo design includes a simple modern and effective icon created from the initials C&K representing Cockfield Knight. The initials C&K have been designed into icon shapes and the K can also be seen as an arrow which has been used across the brand as a visual aid and is also included in the new website. The new blue colour pallet has been developed to represent the business’ close ties to the sea but also evokes the feeling of stability, calm and trust. Please feel free to take a look at the new website www.cockfieldknight.com
POSTER BOYS FOR MIDDLESBROUGH Lee and Anthony Vaughan, part of our operations team recently took part in a campaign to promote Middlesbrough. The Father and Son duo were picked to be part of Middlesbrough Council’s ‘We are Middlesbrough’ campaign to showcase the great and good of the Middlesbrough region. AV Dawson isn’t just one of the largest family owned businesses in Teesside, ‘family’ is one of the business’ core values and it promotes collaborative working and building of strong partnerships. This is something that resonated with the ‘We love Middlesbrough’ campaign and Lee and Anthony were selected because they embodied the spirit of the campaign, two members of the same family, working together to push Teesside forward.
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DEDICATION TO HEALTH AND SAFETY Josh Hutchinson (pictured right) from our Port Operations team and Liam Brown (pictured below) from our Automotive Metals Store were the recent recipients of our HSQE Love to Shop vouchers. The vouchers are given to colleagues that go the extra mile to promote positive Health and Safety.
FIAS/ TASSC RE-CERTIFICATION AV Dawson has once again successfully achieved FIAS (Fertiliser Industry Assurance Scheme) and TASCC (Trade Assurance Scheme for Combined Crops) re-certification. FIAS certification assures fertiliser safety, security and traceability in the industrial supply chain and TASCC was developed to maintain traceability of assured combinable crops and that these crops are treated responsibility once they have left the farm.
OTHER NEWS AV DAWSON HAS FACILITATED ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL MOBILISATION TO ANTARCTICA FROM PORT OF MIDDLESBROUGH, THIS TIME, THE BIOSECURITY PROCESS WAS UNDERTAKEN WITH OVER 100 CONTAINERS IN ADDITION TO A PACKING LIST OF PROJECT CARGO.
AV DAWSON HAS LAUNCHED A NEW FILM TO PROMOTE THE STEVEDORING AND LOGISTICS SERVICES THAT IT CAN PROVIDE ON ITS CUSTOMERS’ SITES – VISIT AV DAWSON’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL FOR MORE DETAILS.
BREXIT HAS RESULTED IN A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN CONTAINER VANNING AND DEVANNING WORK FOR OUR TRIP CONTAINER TERMINAL.
AV DAWSON HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS A SECONDARY CUSTOMS SITE IN TEESSIDE’S FREEPORT. IF YOU’RE INTERESTED TO UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT HOW THIS MIGHT SUPPORT YOUR BUSINESS PLEASE CONTACT CHARLIE.NETTLE@AVDAWSON.COM
IF THESE SERVICES COULD BE OF VALUE TO YOUR BUSINESS PLEASE CONTACT TRIP@AVDAWSON.COM
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COLLEAGUE SURVEY RESULTS
95% AGREE THAT THEY
ARE PREPARED TO GO THE EXTRA MILE FOR THE BUSINESS AND ITS CUSTOMERS
88% AGREED THEY CHOOSE TO WORK HERE INSTEAD OF ANOTHER EMPLOYER
93%
ENJOY WORKING IN THEIR TEAM
85% FELT THEY WERE PART OF A STRONG TEAM 91% AGREE
THEY ENJOY WORKING FOR THE BUSINESS
88% AGREE THE
BUSINESS IS CONTINUALLY LOOKING TO IMPROVE
83% AGREE THAT THE BUSINESS DOES ITS BIT TO SUPPORT LOCAL CHARITIES
93% AGREE THE
FUTURE LOOKS POSITIVE FOR AV DAWSON
83% AGREE AV DAWSON IS
DEDICATED TO EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND SAFETY
Port of Middlesbrough, Riverside Park Road, Middlesbrough TS2 1UT T: +44 (0)1642 219271 E: enquiries@av-dawson.com W: www.portofmiddlesbrough.com
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